IF YOU GO

The Victoria Independent School District needs help. Educating the next generation is a daunting responsibility, especially if there is no support from the community.

Thankfully, VISD is getting some support after the formation of seven committees with volunteers from the Victoria community last fall. These committees focus on communication and partnerships, character education, mentoring and support services, compulsory attendance support, educational awareness for parents, school improvement and career preparation.

We are glad to see these committees operating and partnering with VISD to improve the public education system in Victoria. On Monday, the district is holding a public meeting titled "A Community of Excellence" to share the progress made by these seven groups since their formation.

We encourage our readers to attend this meeting and look for ways to get involved in the improvement and success of our public school system. Education in Texas has faced many obstacles and limitations over the past few years, including a cut of $5 billion in the last legislative session at the same time that a new standardized testing system riddled with controversy and complications was launched.

In the midst of these issues, individual school districts are left to make the best of the substantially fewer resources offered by the state to continue offering the best education possible to their students. With such limited and questionable support from the state, our community has a responsibility to step up and offer the best assistance we can to support our schools. It can be easy to sit back and say the state's shortcomings are not our concerns but doing so would be shortsighted for ourselves and our community.

These children are the future of Victoria. By failing to support our schools, we fail them and ourselves. One day, these students could become business owners, city council members, governors or even president. If we do not offer them the best tools for success available, we limit both them and ourselves in the years ahead.

With this in mind, we encourage community members to attend this meeting Monday night. VISD is working to make changes and improvements but there is only so much they can do on their own. Yes, much of the important work in education happens in the classroom, but actions outside the building can help to reinforce those lessons. We hope to see a strong presence from Victoria. If we stand by our schools, we can make a positive change in the lives of our future leaders.

This editorial reflects the views of the Victoria Advocate's editorial board.